Jazz Articles about Fred Hersch

Fred Hersch Trio: Live At The Village Vanguard

by Mark Corroto
January 16, 2003

Pianist Fred Hersch starts off this live set unaccompanied, playing a version of Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” in a ‘smarty-pants-deconstructed-chamber-post-modernism’ style. As we all know, Monk has never been about high mindedness, and Hersch lets you know he knows just that. Just as his rhythm partners kick in, he shakes off Carnegie Hall for a true New York experience that is a basement known as the Village Vanguard. He plays a little back-and-forth with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet ...

Mary Pearson: You and I

by Dave Hughes
September 1, 2000

Vocalist Mary Pearson's CD You and I is interesting in that each song is a duet in which she is accompanied by a lone instrument. It may be a piano (Lynne Arriale on four tunes, Fred Hersch on two), a guitar, a bass, or on two tunes, drums. While Pearson doesn't delve into scat singing or daring improvizational flights, her interpretations, phrasing, and articulation are excellent. Of the dozen tunes on the program, nine are standards and three are very ...

Mary Pearson: You and I

by Dave Nathan
July 1, 2000

When Nashville is mentioned, jazz, especially jazz vocalizing, is not the first thing that comes to mind - - in fact, it's likely to come to mind at all for most. Pearson comes from and works out of the country musical capitol of the world, and has been doing so for some time now. With this her first album, she may be driving a small wedge in the monopoly country music enjoys in that city.

There's no ensemble playing on ...

Mary Pearson: You and I

by C. Michael Bailey
May 1, 2000

You and I is a disc that had to grow on me over several listenings. And grow on me it did. My first spin left me mostly unmoved. The music and approach were interesting, but not novel. The concept of a vocal duet with various instruments is nothing new. It is not really that far out there that this disc had the voice coupled with each of the standard jazz rhythm section instruments. I had heard this all before with ...

Mary Pearson: You And I

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 2000

As Arkadia slowly but surely builds a label, it now adds its first singer, Mary Pearson Mary Pearson.

“And who is Mary Pearson Mary Pearson?" non-New Yorkers may ask.

Well, Mary Pearson Mary Pearson has been singing below the national radar screen for 20 years or thereabouts, with the likes of Fred Hersch and recently with Diva No-Man's Band. And you've got to give her credit for ingenuity: When she found the going tough as a nightclub singer, she supplemented ...

Fred Hersch: At Jordan Hall

by John Sharpe
August 1, 1999

At Jordan Hall may not be as adventurous as Hersch's last solo outing, Thelonious, but it's still a fine recital by a very talented pianist. Hersch returns to his alma mater, The New England Conservatory of Music and delivers a nine-song program of classic ballads (I Loves You, Porgy), pop songs (My Old Man), bop (Blue Monk) and originals (..departed). Through it all, Hersch conjures up images of his two main influences, Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. He shares Bill's ...

Fred Hersch/Bill Frisell: Songs We Know

by Douglas Payne
November 1, 1998

Pairing two such superior soloists as guitarist Bill Frisell and pianist Fred Hersch seems a most unlikely match. Despite having gigged together a couple times in the 1980s, the only thing the two seem to have in common is they both record for Nonesuch Records. As it turns out, it was Fred Hersch's idea to finally get the two together in the studio - and it couldn't have been a more inspired combination.The brilliant, eclectic Frisell ...